Proper Appreciation of Daycare

I don't think I fully appreciated my daycare until Michael moved "up" to preschool.

1. Our daycare (Ava still attends daycare) does not have random days off.
2. Our daycare's hours are convenient to us. We are signed up for half days. That means I could drop her off as early as 6:30 in the morning and pick her up as late as 1:00 in the afternoon.
3. Our daycare tuition includes a hot breakfast and lunch.
4. Our daycare is flexible. If we have a doctor's appointment, or if Ava is sick on a "school" day they let us switch her day to another day of the week.
5. Now this one is going to sound terrible, but I'm just going to put it out there. Our daycare doesn't have many expectations. They aren't sending home activities, asking for supplies, wanting us to participate in school fundraisers, or expecting attendance at school functions.

The week before winter break, our daycare was open Monday through Friday. The school was open only through Wednesday. This past week our daycare was open all week again. The school didn't open until Wednesday. I actually decided to keep both children home Tuesday and let them play together rather than have Michael home alone and drag him out to drop Ava off and pick Ava up from school.

It isn't that I don't appreciate pre-school. Michael loves it. His teachers are amazing. The facilities are beautiful. The learning activities and structure are a much better transition to formal schooling than his daycare was. I just chafe a little at the way that the schedule of school dictates our lives compared to the way a daycare works around the schedule of families.

Creationary Fun

Michael's godfather got him a Lego game called Creationary for a Christmas gift. Essentially the player pulls a card with a picture on it and tries to build that thing out of the included legos. The other players guess until they identify the object and if successful the builder and the player who guesses correctly both get a point.

Michael was super excited about the gift. Oddly enough, he hasn't played it yet though. The visit was busy, and we haven't pulled it out since we got home. However, all the adults played it. A group of 4-8 20-50 year olds played this game and had a great time for several hours two evenings in a row.

I highly recommend this game. It's an imaginative game that engages multiple generations together having a great time.

Happy Holidays 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. I hope you are all having a wonderful day with family and friends.

We're spending the morning with our children. They are having their first year where they are both old enough to enjoy the magic of Santa and yet young enough to be completely sweet, innocent, and expectation-free about the experience. This is a nice year.

We will have lunch and spend the afternoon with my parents and simply enjoy the time together.

At the same time we are preparing for our annual trip to New Orleans to visit family. I am excited. I love seeing my extended family. I love watching our children get to know their extended family better with every visit. I also simply enjoy being back in New Orleans. In many ways it is still "home" to me.

The end of December is always a wonderful time.

Why, oh why? (Or one of the fundamental truths of parenthood.)

My children go to school only two mornings a week. I get four blessed hours of time to myself on those days. Much of my sanity lies in those hours. The other five days a week they are at home.

Therefore, one of the fundamental truths of parenthood dictates that the stomach bug will hit on a school morning - always. The universe gets bonus points if it happens on the last school morning before winter break.

(Note the pitifully listless child, carefully positioned bowl, towels laid down to protect the carpet, minimal clothing to get dirty, and hair pulled back. What you can't see is the television I am letting her watch in order to keep her in the safe-puking zone.)

Cricut Christmas Cards

The children received their homemade Cricut Christmas Cards a couple of days ago. First they were surprised by Halloween cards. Then they were delighted to receive Thanksgiving cards. This time, as soon as they saw their matching envelopes in the mail they were excited. The cards are adorable, as usual. The messages inside are sweet. Our entire family enjoys receiving them. It is a beautiful gift. Thanks again to Ava's godfather and his girlfriend for their thoughtfulness. It is much appreciated.

Passing the Blanket

We've been cleaning the basement a little. We moved into our house when I was in the third trimester with Michael. I wasn't doing a lot of unnecessary unpacking then. Then we had our first baby followed 15 months later by our second baby. Now that things are settling a bit we're diving into some boxes and bins that have been pretty much untouched for over four years.

I opened a bin yesterday and found my old blanket. It was the one I used as a very young girl. My mother had made it for me. It is nothing special to look at, but it is special to me and I still have it decades later. As I was holding it, Michael walked by.

Now, Michael has a special blanket he sleeps with every night. He calls it his hugging blanket. It stays in his room, but he wants it at naptime and bedtime, so he is familiar with the concept of a special blanket.

I showed my old blanket to Michael and told him that it was my hugging blanket when I was a little girl. I explained that his grandmother had made it for me and that it was special. I was about to put it back away when he asked me if he could have it for his room. He said he wanted it so that it could be friends with his hugging blanket. I thought to myself, why not?

As he proudly carried it up the stairs to his room he ran into his sister. I heard him say, "Look Ava! This is mommy's hugging blanket from when she was a little girl. She gave it to me. It is very special."

One Activity - Many Skills

I've been wanting to do this cork/pushpin activity ever since I wandered across the idea.

Pinning Shapes

Disclaimer/Warning: Only use this activity with children you are sure aren't putting things in their mouth any more. And even then, closely supervise.

I found cork squares at Joann Fabrics for about $2. Use a marker and draw shapes on the coasters. You could use cookie cutters to trace simple shapes. (I did dots, but if I were to do it again I would just trace lines.) Bring cork, pushpins, and the children to the table.

Introduce pushpins to children. Explain that pushpins are for grown-ups and children only get to use them during very special activities because they are sharp. Remind them that if they ever find them at any other time they should carefully bring them to a grown-up to put them away. This introduces basic safety rules and also has the side benefit of making the children very excited about the activity.

Let them use the pushpins to fill in the shapes.

Skills/Objectives addressed here:
Vocabulary/Concepts: Shapes, colors (we only had red pushpins, but if you had many colors you could address colors and patterns), patterns
OT: Fine motor / pincer grasp / hand-eye coordination
Speech: Use this activity as a motivator. The child gets to push a pin in after every X repetitions.
Pragmatic: Listening to directions, turn taking, attention span, eye contact

Heart on His Sleeve

Michael is at an age where he is beginning to be interested in playing with his peers. I watch him play with his sister, or with a friend during a play date, or even in the play place at the mall or McDonalds. He tries so hard.

He'll carefully set up an activity in his room. Last week it was a picnic. He carried a blanket, pretend food, and play dishes up two flights of stairs from the basement to his bedroom. He spread out the blanket in the middle of the room and laid out a beautiful picnic. Then he excitedly ran down the stairs to invite his sister to play. She wasn't interested. First he invited. Then he wheedled and whined. Finally he broke into tears. I didn't know what to do. I felt for him. I wanted her to want to go. But she didn't. She's still too little. She wanted to be near me. I suppose I could have dropped what I was doing to go upstairs with both of them, but I didn't. I don't remember why.

During a play date a couple of days ago Michael desperately wanted to show his friend one of his birthday presents. Again, he was practically quivering with excitement. It is adorable and he is just so earnest and genuine. And his friend was more interested in playing with something else. And he melted down, again.

At the play place I see him look at the other children and carefully choose someone who looks his age to be his friend. He'll walk over and introduce himself and ask the other child's name. More often than not, the other child simply goes their way. I watch other children successfully bond. Even Ava is beginning to be able to do it. But it doesn't quite work for Michael and I can't quite put my finger on why. He's often on the periphery of the group.

I see this as a budding issue on two levels. First, I wish I could figure out why socializing isn't quite gelling for him. If I could figure that out, perhaps I could subtly redirect him to be more successful. The second level is his sensitivity to rejection. The meltdowns are heartbreaking for him and for me. And they don't help the social situation. Surely the solution isn't to "reject" him at home on purpose when he invites me to do something just so that I can try to help him handle the feeling...

If anyone has any wisdom or resources to share here I'd really appreciate it because I'd love to find a way to help my sensitive little boy and I don't have a lot of ideas.

Fall

When we were rearranging Ava's room we moved a bunch of treasured belongings crap into the upstairs landing area. It's still there. We'll get to it eventually.

A few nights ago as I was getting ready to head up to bed I heard the distinctive sound of a kitty batting something around in play. I went around the corner to investigate. The sound was coming from above. I looked up and to my horror our kitten Grace was dashing around the upstairs landing on the -outside- of the rail.

I must have gasped and startled her because she startled, slipped, and fell off the landing heading for the hardwood floor a full story below.

Did you guys read that news story about a woman walking by on a street who caught a baby who had fallen off a balcony? I am so not that woman. My reaction time is s l o w. Grace crashed into the floor before I had even fully processed what was going on.

I was terrified, briefly. But she scrambled up and ran off as if she hadn't just fallen straight down from one floor to another onto a hard wooden floor. It took much longer for me to calm down and for my heart rate to return to normal than the entire event took to begin with.

And the moral of this story...?

I have no idea. :-). Don't count on me to catch you if you fall? Kittens really can fall at least one story without harm? Be thankful when disaster passes you by?

The Weekly Review: Week 37

This week's atypical weekly review is brought to you courtesy of the two hours I went overboard prepping for a preschool school project last night instead of working on preparing a typical weekly review.

So, this is how it went...

Assignment:
Help your child make five holiday cards to be sent to a nursing home.

Initial thoughts:
Hmm. I can use the cricut to make some trees. Michael can glue them to some construction paper and then glue on some ornaments and color it and we'll be done.

And then:

1. Well, if I'm getting the cricut out anyway, I might as well cut the cards out of cardstock and matching envelopes. (This step didn't go smoothly, and took much longer than intended.)
2. Oooh, I have some pretty glittery cardstock. I'll cut the ornaments out of cardstock too.
3. And look! I can print a pretty phrase too! (Joy)

Seriously, by the time all that was done, my poor husband had put the children to bed by himself.

And now I have a big pile of card components to assemble with the children today and they'll still just color all over them.

Tape Resist Watercolor Trees - with Salt Effect

I was inspired by this to try a completely different type of art project with the children yesterday. It turned out beautifully.

As I believe I've mentioned before, I have very little art experience. I've never really worked with watercolors myself, but one of my aunts gave us some really nice watercolor paper and I had bought some watercolors for other projects (like the salt art). I found a roll of my husband's tape (I think it's electrical tape) that I thought would peel back off the paper well. We also have salt. So we had everything we needed to try this.

This is how we did the project.

Gather materials.

• watercolor paper
• tape
• watercolors (I chose blue and red because I wanted to start by having the children paint everything blue and then add a little red to the blue to make a darker blue to layer over half the picture. I wanted a wintry look to the picture.)
• paintbrushes / cup
• salt (table or coarse)
• easel (optional)

I prepared the trees with the tape ahead of time and taped them to the easel. Then I let the children wet the paper with a fine mist from a spray bottle.

Next I gave them the paint and had them paint the entire card blue. I had to show them that it was all right to actually paint over the tape and to paint all the way to the edges of the watercolor paper. Then I added some red to the blue watercolor paint. I was aiming for purple, but ended up with a dark blue instead. I told them to re-paint the bottom half of their paper with the darker color. (I picked the bottom because the paint kept dripping down. If we had tried to make the top darker, we would have ended up with drips all over the bottom. An interesting effect, I'm sure, but not what I wanted.)

We took the wet pictures down from the easel and laid them flat on a large piece of cardstock and the children sprinkled salt on their pictures.

We let them dry with the salt in place for an hour or two. Every so often we'd stop by and observe how the salt was turning blue and there was a snowflake effect in the salt around the paint. Then we sat down to brush the salt off.

Finally we pulled off the tape.

The children were amazed and proud at the final product. I have to admit, I was pretty impressed too. I think the end result is quite beautiful and it was simple enough to do with a 2 and 4 year old.

I think we'll do a similar project in the near future, except this time I'll let the children apply the tape any way they'd like and choose their own colors.

Ava's new room

This past week we've significantly rearranged Ava's room. Her room is small, and the children would rarely play in there because the room felt cramped. She did, however, have one of those long shallow closets with sliding doors. We came up with the idea of taking the doors off and moving her toddler bed into the closet.

Well, it gave us more space, but it looked awful.

So, I decided that we could try hanging curtains around it to hide the storage and edges of the closet. We went to a fabric store and chose some material and got 10 yards of two different types. One was pink and satiny and the other was a tutu type material (not sure what it was called actually) with pretty sparkles. I just hemmed all the edges and we called them curtains.

We bought and installed a curtain rod and then tossed the curtains up and it's better. Ava loves it. Now it does look like a pink princess went a little overboard in her room, but I can live with it. (Ok, that made it sound easy, but I am obviously completely uneducated on how to hang curtains, because achieving that look was extremely difficult and my husband did most of the work.)

This is what her room looks like now. Everyone is enjoying the refresh and I've noticed the children spending a lot more time playing in there.

Discovery Bottles

Magnetic, Static Electricity, and "Magic Dust" Discovery Bottles

Discovery bottles are just clear closed bottles filled with something for the children to explore visually and through interaction with the bottle. We've made several over the past week or two, but I'm sharing my three favorites today.

Magnetic Discovery Bottle

This bottle is simple in concept. Fill the bottle with pipe cleaners cut into half inch or inch long pieces. Have the children predict if a magnet will attract the pipe cleaners. Give them the bottle and the magnet and let them find out.

The kids loved watching the magnet attract the pipe cleaner segments. They competed to see who could get their magnet to attract the most segments of pipe cleaner. They attracted pipe cleaners near the bottom of the bottle and then would drag the magnet (and therefore the pipe cleaners) to the top of the bottle very carefully to watch them suspended seemingly by "magic" at the top of the bottle. Michael even managed to suspend the bottle in mid-air through the power of the attraction between the magnet and the pipe cleaners.

Static Electricity Discovery Bottle

Cut small shapes out of tissue paper and insert into clean dry bottle. I presented this to the kids like a magic trick. I showed them the bottle "at rest", so to speak, with all the shapes resting at the bottom. We talked briefly about gravity and what happens when we flip the bottle upside down (fall to the bottom) or on it's side (fall to bottom again). I then told them I needed their help to do a magic trick and had them repeat magic words after me as I rubbed the bottle against the carpet. (abracadabra, alakazam, etc.) Then I showed them how our magic made the shapes stick to the side of the bottle. When Michael asked I explained a little bit about how it was really static electricity that made it work, not really magic.

"Magic Dust" Discovery Bottle (or Current Bottle)

Put some shaving cream in the bottle (about 1/3 full). Then fill bottle with colored water (be careful, the shaving cream will try to escape). Swirl until the shaving cream dissolves and then add more water until the bottle is completely full. Now your bottle will make beautiful swirls and current-like patterns as you swirl or shake the bottle. It is hard to see in the picture but it really is quite peaceful and beautiful. The children call it the "magic dust" bottle. It is one of the first ones they choose to show off to guests.

The Cricut Card Elves Strike Again

The children received another homemade holiday card in the mail (see the Halloween cards here). It was sent to the children by Ava's godfather and designed and made by his girlfriend with her cricut machine. It is adorable.

She also had a brilliant idea. While she was cutting the pieces to assemble the turkey for the front of the card, she made extra pieces (a little larger). Then she put together two assemble-your-own-turkey activity kits for the children. They are so excited and can't wait to make their own turkeys. Michael insists his is going on the wall in his room. Ava hasn't stated a preference yet, but I suspect she'll copy her brother.

(Thanks for the card! It is lovely.)

Early Pentatonic Music

As a companion to my review of early pentatonic instruments from a couple of days ago, I wanted to discuss pentatonic music.

Given that the notes you'll find on the early pentatonic instruments include only d, e, g, a, b, D, and E you need music that only includes those notes. It was more difficult than I expected to find songs for early pentatonic instruments.

Music Book Reviews: Pentatonic Music Books

These are the four books I found.

Music Book Review: I love to be me: Songs in the mood of the fifth

The first book is I love to be me: Songs in the mood of the fifth. Music is by Channa A. Seidenberg and illustrations are by Kingsley Lou Little. This book was first published in 2002. The book includes 32 songs written for a 7-string lyre in the pentatonic scale. Almost every song is accompanied by a beautiful full-color illustration and includes lyrics. The songs are presented very simply. Notes are not divided into measures. Some of the songs are very simple musical accompaniments to children's poems. Others are more lyrical. This would be a nice way for a preschool teacher to introduce children's poems with a picture and simple musical accompaniment.

Music Book Review: Clump-a-Dump and Snickle-Snack

The second book is Clump-a-Dump and Snickle-Snack by Johanne Russ. This is a translation of a book published in Holland in 1966. It includes 42 fairytale themed, holiday, and lullaby songs written in the pentatonic scale. The music and lyrics are handwritten rather than typeset for the most part. The book also contains occasional (beautiful) black and white pencil drawings. Due to the handwritten appearance of the music it is a little harder to follow than the Seidenberg book. Also, this music is significantly more complex. However, the content is original and there is a lot there to learn and enjoy.

Music Book Review: Pentatonic Songs for nursery, kindergarten and grades 1 and 2

The third book is Pentatonic Songs for nursery, kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 by Elisabeth Lebret. This book was published in 1985. This book contains 45 simple songs. Many were written by the author or based on nursery rhymes. This book includes no illustrations. The music is done in a handwritten style and the lyrics appear as if they were typed on a typewriter.

Music Book Review: Familiar Songs for Pentatonic Playalongs

The final book is Familiar Songs for Pentatonic Playalongs published in 1991 by Noteworthy Press. This book has the music and lyrics for 11 pentatonic songs and named notes (not full music or lyrics, but just the names of the notes) for an additional 14 songs. For 8 of the songs the book includes song cards that show a visual representation of the music for easy use with a lyre. This book begins with an introduction to the lyre and the pentatonic scale. That is followed by the 8 song cards and the full lyrics and sheet music (and small black and white illustration) to the 11 pentatonic songs. That is followed by the named notes for 14 additional songs. Finally there is a short information page on reading musical notation. If you were only going to get one of the four books, I would recommend this one. Yes, there are fewer songs overall, but the songs are familiar and accessible. The book also provides some introductory information to the instrument, the pentatonic scale, and musical notation. The song cards are a great bonus as well.

These books are not easy to find. Most websites had one or two, but not all. I finally found all four of them here.

My Pentatonic Song Card Adaptations

So, to be perfectly honest, even after several years of piano as a child I am not a great sight reader. Also, the lyre is a completely new instrument to me. I use intervals a lot when I'm trying to sight read and the translation from a traditional music staff to the pentatonic instrument was challenging for me. So, I took a couple of familiar tunes I knew were pentatonic and made my own song cards. I'm sharing these arrangements with you. I hope someone finds them to be useful. (I checked and both of these are public domain songs so I do not believe I am violating any copyright laws. If someone believes otherwise please contact me so I can address the issue.)

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these music cards provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Sand on the Light Box: Storytelling

After we finished making our sand shapes the other day, I decided on a whim to use the light box / sand combo to do some impromptu storytelling. The first story that popped into my head was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children loved it! Now, keep in mind that I draw about as well as your average 4 year old, and yet somehow even my stick drawings in the sand on a light box are entrancing to young children.

Here are a few pictures I snapped during the storytelling.

Goldilocks

The Three Bears taking a walk in the forest.

Three hot bowls of porridge.

Goldilocks testing the three chairs.

Goldilocks waking up to see the three bears looking down at her.

The story reached its natural end and I was encouraging the children to do a little free play in the sand before it was time to put everything away. Most of my attention was on Ava, but then I realized that Michael had been busy. Next thing I know I turn my head and see this:

Everything you see there he drew on his own. Then he told Ava and I the story of Mama Cat and Michael Cat who had to go out and take their dog to the vet. While they were out a little girl from their village went into their house, sat in one of their chairs and ate up all their food... So, yes, his story was closely modeled after Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but I was very impressed with both his drawing and storytelling nonetheless.

Early Pentatonic Instruments

I was browsing a catalog I received in the mail to see if anything caught my eye for the children and I stumbled across a kinder lyre. It is a small stringed instrument with only seven strings. It is tuned to a pentatonic scale (more on that in a bit) so that the children can pluck any sequence or combination of strings and produce a musical result. I was intrigued. First, I liked the concept of the pentatonic scale. Second, I liked the idea of bringing another instrument (besides the piano which is rarely used) into the house.

Then I glanced at the price. Since this was a catalog of children's toys, I expected the lyre to be priced like a toy. Let's just say that it wasn't, and leave it at that. I tried to put it out of mind, but I found myself thinking about it over the next several days. I decided that I wanted to get a pentatonic instrument for our household and began to research in earnest.

Pentatonic Scale

(I am not a great musician or an expert at musical theory, so take this information as a novice's summary of the information she has researched. If you know more about this and think something is incorrect, please send me an email so I can update this post.)

The typical scale most of us are used to is a diatonic scale with 7 notes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). The pentatonic scale uses only five of those notes. In an instrument tuned to the key of D, those notes would be D, E, G, A, B. Eliminating two notes from the diatonic scale results in a scale that leaves only harmonious combinations of notes. This makes an instrument tuned to a pentatonic scale an excellent choice for a first instrument for a child.

Choices for a Pentatonic First Instrument

As I was researching pentatonic instruments I found three main options: the lyre (the 7 or 10 string version is often called a kinder lyre), the glockenspiel (a metal xylophone), and the pentatonic recorder.

Kinder Lyre

A kinder lyre is a small stringed instrument. The ones I looked at had either 7 or 10 strings tuned to d-e-g-a-b-D-E (-G-A-B). The music is played by plucking the strings. Here are the four kinder lyres I looked at:

1. Harps of Lorien-Kinder Lyre
   
   
2. Auris Pentatonic Lyre
   
   Here is a video that features the auris pentatonic lyre.
3. Eyster Meadow Lyre
   
   This lyre in this video is an Eyster Meadow Lyre.
4. Song of the Sea Kinder Harp target="_blank"
   
   Here's a sound sample of this lyre.

Pentatonic Glockenspiel

A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument similar to a xylophone. This Auris Pentatonic Glockenspiel has a beautiful tone.

Here is a video of a duet played on two of these.

Pentatonic Recorder

A pentatonic recorder is a woodwind instrument that is similar to a flute tuned to a pentatonic scale. This Choroi Pentatonic Recorder sounds beautiful.

This is a video that shows a Choroi Pentatonic Recorder (you need to skip to about 4:45 in to see it).

Which early pentatonic instrument should I choose?

In my completely novice opinion, the glockenspiel seems to be the most accessible for very young children followed by the lyre and finally the recorder. If I were making a decision on which one to get for our family (a 2 1/2 year old and a just turned four year old) I would definitely choose the glockenspiel.

I wanted the lyre though. I was more excited about playing the lyre myself, and so I chose to get that one. I think the children will be able to play it a little, and they will be able to listen to me as I learn a new instrument. Perhaps we can get a glockenspiel too later and play multi-instrument pentatonic duets. Hmm. I'm probably getting ahead of myself a little.

Hospital Visits as a Measure of Progress?

Ava and I were back at the ER Friday night for croup again. Friday was Michael's birthday. I sent Daddy home to spend the evening trying to make Michael's (small family) birthday celebration as much like it would have been as possible.

Cons: Well, those are pretty obvious. First, Ava couldn't breathe and needed a steroid to calm things down. Second, it was happening on Michael's birthday.

Pros: It was a mildly interesting fact that I was spending the evening in the exact same hospital that I had been in four years earlier.

Also, it gave me a chance to really see how much progress Ava's made with her sensory issues since our last trip to the hospital (almost exactly 7 weeks ago). Wow! The difference was amazing.

Last time Ava screamed when they weighed and measured her. She screamed when they took her temperature and measured her oxygen levels. She screamed when they took her blood pressure and examined her. She screamed when taking her medicine.

This time she was great. She was a little nervous and wiggly, and cried a little occasionally, but overall she handled everything fairly well. She was even charming with strangers. She was being cute and trying to be funny and enjoying the attention. This is the same child that used to act like direct eye contact from a stranger was an assault. Oddly enough, this trip to the ER was a huge way to track some pretty amazing OT progress.

(And we were sent home without an overnight stay or breathing treatments necessary, so this trip was much more successful than the last one. Hurray for not waiting until things were absolutely critical this time.)

Puffy Paint on a 3D Cone

I was inspired by a couple of ideas I found on pinterest.

Source: delawarecountymoms.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Source: housingaforest.com via Jodi on Pinterest

First we made our own "puffy paint" combining equal parts flour, salt, and water (we used 1/3 cup of each to make about 5 oz.) and then mixing in some liquid tempera to color. The children chose to make red, purple, and orange. I then used a funnel to put the paint in small 2oz squeeze bottles.

I then set the kids up with some white cones I had made from cardstock and trimmed so they would stand up straight. I also taped them to a base to catch spills and keep them from tipping over while they were being painted.

We ran into a problem right away. The paint wouldn't squeeze. I found a small pair of embroidery scissors and managed to make the holes larger and that worked for a while. We continued to have trouble during the activity with the holes getting blocked by small lumps of paint or because the paint dried up in the tip. We would shake and tap the bottles and I'd use the scissors to clear out the tips of the bottles and that helped. I honestly think the children would have played much longer if we hadn't had the technical difficulties though.

My only suggestion would be to use squeeze bottles with much larger holes than ours - perhaps ketchup style holes. Or just use a paint brush.

They had a blast though. From the start of the project (making the paint) through then end of painting the cones, the kids were engaged for a full hour and a half.

Celebration

Michael's birthday party was outstanding. I couldn't possibly say better things about the place that we used for his party. The children had a wonderful time for 90 solid minutes. The activities were perfectly designed for the age group. They alternated structured games with free play and changed the activities available for free play each time. They did a nice job of making Michael feel special as the birthday boy without making the rest of the children feel left out. Michael will remember his party happily for a long time. Here are some scenes from the party.